Adventures In Crafting: Pumpkin Week

Between being sick and choosing a theme that left me appearing like a deer caught in the headlights, Pumpkin Week wasn't an out of the park hit.  It started off promising with a wonderful trip to Underwood Family Farms, but fizzled out after pumpkin painting.  I still hung in there to get through the week by perseverance and relying on oldies, but goodies.

Monday

Daddy took off and joined us for a wonderful trip to Underwood Family Farms.  CJ loved it!  There are pumpkins, rides for kids, farm animals, and a corn maze.  I had planned for theme weeks to end in a trip, but this place costs $12 per person on the weekends and that includes the munckin.  But during the week, it only cost us $9 and we used last years leftover tickets for the rides.  This was well worth switching up the schedule.

Tuesday

 We picked a mini pumpkin for our little one so it wouldn't be to overwhelming to handle and paint.  This project made me second guess using paint as a craft with this little guy.

Wednesday

I attempted to copy Play At Home Moms with the pumpkin magnet and tried to take it in a cheap direction and this one did not work out too well.  The magnets didn't stick well and he ended up just pulling them off the paper and the fridge.  It did, however keep him occupied for a second.  This day was when I reintroduced an activity from last week.

Using the picture board I made and the Woodsie cut-outs.  He had to match the letter blocks with the corresponding pictures.  Although I had to point out most pictures and tell him the letter, he got a few on his own.  I couldn't believe he actually had the patience to finish the whole board!

Thursday

Stamp day or should I say Diaster day.  It started off with me trying to have him make pumpkin stamps on white paper with different color ink and, well, you can see the pictures.

I also made a box tunnel, an idea I've adapted from several blogs and articles.  It was actually a hit, but I struggled adding the features I wanted.  It was supposed to have pumpkin lights inside.  He loved it though.  We ended up playing "mommy chase me into the box".  The day was also filled up with a trip to the store.

Friday

This was I am totally over it day.  I just took him to a local playroom and watched him enjoy himself.  I joined in intermittently to encourage pretend play.

Things I Learned:
     1.  Take time to learn what is age appropriate.
     2.  When in doubt rely on the basics
     3.  Come up with rainy day ideas (this includes mommy sick days)
     4.  Some activities won't work the cheap way, so don't be to proud to skip it.
     5.  Kids, unlike us, get pleasure out of simple things so if something doesn't work perfectly give yourself a break.